Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

When it comes to collaborative editing, Google Docs is the go-to for most. But if you're looking for something easy that doesn't require a login, Fiddle is a simple Markdown editor for collaborative editing.

Mac: PowerPoint and Keynote have been the main presentation tools for most people for a long while, but if you're looking for a simpler alternative, Deckset makes things a bit simpler by building presentations based on Markdown files.

iPad: There are apps that are great for writing and then there are apps that great for editing. The recently updated Phraseology does both, but it really excels when you start editing text by showing you helpful statistics.

I'm a huge fan of to-do lists. They help me stay organised, prioritise my day, and add structure to an otherwise chaotic schedule. I recently discovered what appears to be the best yet simplest way to keep a to-do list: a GitHub Gist.

Mac: We're fans of Write, the note taking app for iPhone that's full of features but retains a simple interface, and now that app is on its way to the Mac. Currently, you can check it out for free while it's in beta.

Mac/iOS: ia Writer is one of the more popular minimal text editors, and the Pro edition for both Mac and iOS adds some useful extra features. While it retains the simplicity of just offering text on a page, Writer Pro also includes several modes for different stages of writing and an incredibly useful syntax control to give you a lot more power when you're editing.

Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Thunderbird/Postbox: Markdown is a great way to instantly render text as HTML without knowing a lick of coding. If you want to use that in an email client like Gmail or Postbox, Markdown Here adds the functionality easily.

Forget about that meeting you have in 10 minutes to present your new idea? If you need to crank out a presentation really quickly, Biggie is a tool that lets you create and publish a slideshow within minutes.

We've shown you the wonders of Markdown as great for your to-do lists and notes. If you love Markdown too, but you're stuck with a bunch of Google docs that aren't in the format (but need to be), this Google Apps Script converts them instantly.

Dear Lifehacker, I've heard a lot about using Markdown for writing and editing text, especially on tablets. But I'm not really sure what people like about it. Is it worth switching from plain text or Word to use it? Thanks, Marked Down